Agriculture CS Mutahi Kagwe said tea farmers in Kenya must be rewarded for their efforts with Kenya recording improved sales in 2024 compared to 2023.
Kagwe said tea hawkers are distorting market, leaving true tea farmers struggling while they make a kill at the expense of the farmers.
“A farmer has an acre of tea farm but the tea they bring to the factories are more than a five-acre farm produce. Where did they get these four additional acres worth of tea?” Kagwe said at the Tea Auction in Mombasa on Thursday.
He spoke as he released the performance of the tea industry in 2024.
Kagwe noted that Kenyan tea fetched an improved Sh215.21 billion in 2024, compared to the Sh196.97 billion it fetched in 2023.
“This represents a nine per cent increase,” Kagwe said
From the Sh215.21 billion, Sh181.69 was earned from exports, while Sh18 billion was earned from local sales.
Another Sh15.52 billion was earned from committed stocks.
Kagwe said Kenyans need to take the positives from every situation to move forward.
“I congratulate the entire industry. As Kenyans let’s every so often look at something positively no matter how many challenges exist in the industry.
“There’ll never be a time where there will not be a challenge or two. But let’s look positively. Let’s take good deals when we can and this is one of those times,” Kagwe said.
Tea exports earned Sh1.12 billion more in 2024 compared to 2023 when the exports brought in Sh180.57 billion, which is a one per cent increase.
Kagwe attributed this to increased export volume.
In 2023, Kenya exported 522.92 million kilograms of tea compared to 594.5 million kilograms in 2024, representing a 14 per cent increase.
However, compared to the year 2023, the export prices and the exchange rate to the USD were less favourable to the earnings.
The average export unit price was slightly lower in dollar terms at USD 2.27 per kilogram compared to USD 2.47 in 2023 while the mean exchange rate of the Kenya Shilling to the USD was lower at 134.82 compared to 139.85.
In 2024, Kenya shipped its tea to 96 export destinations compared to 92 in 2023.
Pakistan imported the biggest chunk of Kenyan tea, importing 206.27 million kilograms worth Sh70 billion.
Other key export destinations for Kenyan tea were Egypt whose import volume was 86.90 million kilograms worth Sh23.96 billion.
The UK imported 57.44 million kilograms of Kenyan tea worth Sh16.99 billion while the UAE imported 30.50 million kilograms valued at Sh10.27 billion.
Other destinations were Russia (28.46 million kilograms, worth Sh7.43 billion), India (17.13 million kilograms, Sh3.94 billion), Saudi Arabia (15.92 million kilograms, Sh6.02 billion), Yemen (14.13 million kilograms, Sh5.52 billion), Iran (13 million kilograms, Sh4.26 billion), and China (12.42 million kilograms, Sh2.73 billion).
Chad is significantly growing as an emerging market for direct imports from Kenya.
Prior to the conflict in Sudan, Chad which is a land locked country, would get its import supplies including tea from Sudan.
However, due to the blockage of trade routes from Sudan, Chad has now shifted to Nigeria and Cameroon as alternative import transhipment routes.
Just like Chad, South Sudan is also rapidly growing as an emerging market for Kenya tea.
Similarly, there were improved exports to other traditional and emerging markets such as Kazakhstan, Somali, Switzerland, Oman, Nigeria, Ukraine, Sri Lanka, USA, Germany, South Africa and Japan.
Due to market access challenges occasioned by internal conflict in the country, there was a 12 per cent dip in tea exports to Sudan.
Tea exports to Pakistan also recorded a dip of two per cent owing to the effects of the changes in the sales tax policy in the market, which was effected during the last quarter of the year.